Creative Writers How I Write Contributors

Liz Nugent was born in Dublin, where she now lives with her husband, musician and sound engineer, Richard McCullough. Liz worked as a stage manager in theaters in Ireland and toured internationally before writing extensively for radio and television drama.

Liz's second novel, Lying in Wait, was released in July 2016. It went straight to number one in the Irish Bestseller lists, remaining there for nine weeks and spent eight months in the top ten.

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Jo Slade, a poet and painter, lives and works in Limerick. She studied at the Limerick School of Art and Design, the National College of Art and the University of Limerick. Jo is the author of four collections of poetry and a chapbook of poems, including a French/English collection, Certain Octobers, which was published in France. Her fourth collection, City of Bridget, was published by Salmon Poetry, Cliffs of Moher, Ireland in 2005. In 2003 she was nominated for the Prix Evelyne Encelot Ecriture Prize, Maison des Ecrovaoms, Paris.

She has been a Writer-in-Residence for Limerick County Council and in 2007 she was Writer-in-Residence at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. Her paintings have been widely exhibited in Ireland and in France.

Tim Cunningham was born in Limerick in 1942 and educated at Limerick C.B.S. and Birkbeck College, London. He currently resides in Essex, UK. His first collection, Don Marcelino's Daughter, was published by Peterloo Poets in 2001 and reprinted in 2002 and 2004. His second collection Unequal Thirds was published in 2006, again by Peterloo. Kyrie, his third collection, was published in 2008.

This How I Write, Ireland interview coincides with the launch of his latest collection of poetry, Siege (2012). Published by Revival press, the poetry imprint of The Limerick Writers' Centre, every poem in Limerick born poet Tim Cunningham's fourth collection is of universal application, but the physical locus and emotional heart is that 'ancient city schooled in the hardships of war'. Seige is a celebration of life and an intimate paean to where particular lives at a particular time were, and are being, lived; what used to be called a work of pietas.

Donal Ryan’s debut novel, The Spinning Heart, was voted the 2012 Irish Book of the Year, won the Guardian First Book Award in 2013, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize and was a finalist for the 2014 IMPAC Literary Award.

Additionally, The Spinning Heart was a number one bestseller in Ireland and a Boston Globe bestseller in the US. He is a Tipperary native and holds a law degree from the University of Limerick.

Donal has accepted the 2015 Arts Council Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the University of Limerick, where, with Joseph O’Connor and Giles Foden, he teaches Creative Writing. In September 2015, Donal Ryan’s first short story collection, A Slanting of the Sun, will be released worldwide.

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Prof Joseph O’Connor is a best-selling author and current Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. His latest novel The Thrill of it All is his twelfth work of fiction, having also penned five works of non-fiction.

Some of the South Dublin native’s previous books include; include Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Redemption Falls and Star of the Sea, which was an international bestseller with over one million sales and was published in 38 languages. Star of the Sea won prizes in France, Italy and the US, as well as the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year.

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Sara Baume was born in Lancashire but grew up in Co. Cork. She studied Fine Art in Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design and completed a Masters in Creative Writing in Trinity College, Dublin.

Spill Simmer Falter Wither, Sara Baume’s debut novel, won The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2015 and was long listed for the Guardian First Book Award. She also won the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year award at the Bórd Gais Energy Book Awards 2015. Her novel was featured as one of this year’s student and staff chosen UL First Seven Weeks recommended books.

In 2014 she was awarded the Davy Byrnes short story award, organised by the Stinging Fly in association with Dublin Unesco City of Literature, for her story Solesearcher1.Sara Baume won the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award earlier in 2015 for her short story Dancing, or Beginning to Dance and won the Emerging Fiction Award for the work.

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Professor Sarah Moore is Associate Vice President, Academic here at the University of Limerick. Before that she spent over a decade as UL's Dean of Teaching and Learning establishing one of the country's first centres for teaching and learning in the higher education sector. Currently she also chairs Ireland's National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She holds an award for excellence in teaching and has published many academic books and papers on areas related to teaching, learning, learner support and professional development in Higher Education. She has a particular interest in how academics and students engage in the often contested and frequently difficult process of writing for assessment and publication.

In addition to her work as an academic, Sarah has always been a creative writer. She is the author of three novels for children and young adults (Back to Blackbrick, The Apple Tart of Hope' and 'A Very Good Chance'). Her novels have been shortlisted for several literary prizes, including the Waterstone's prize, and the CBI book of the year. In 2015 she was the recipient of the Jack Harte bursary, presented by the Irish Writers' Centre.

Louise O’ Neill grew up in Clonakilty, a small town in West Cork, Ireland. After receiving an honours BA in English Studies from Trinity College Dublin, she went on to complete a post-graduate diploma in Fashion Buying from the Dublin Institute of Technology. She moved to New York City in 2010 and spent a year there interning as an assistant stylist for the senior style director of Elle Magazine, Kate Lanphear.

Louise’s second novel, ASKING FOR IT, was published in September 2015 to widespread critical acclaim. She has since won the Specsaver’s Senior Children’s Book of the Year at the 2015 Irish Book Awards, the Literature Prize at Irish Tatler’s Women of the Year Awards, and Best Author at Stellar magazine’s Shine Awards. It was voted Book of the Year at the Irish Books Awards 2015 and has spent 34 weeks in the Irish top 10 bestseller list. A documentary of the same name – on the subject of rape culture and presented by Louise – was aired in November 2016.

Louise is a freelance journalist for a variety of Irish national newspapers and magazines, covering feminist issues, fashion and pop culture. She contributed to I CALL MYSELF A FEMINIST – a collection of essays from women under 30 explaining why they see themselves as feminists, which was published by Virago. She is currently working on her fourth novel.